


Butterfly Stitch

by AnimusStuff (DarthAnimus)



Category: BIRDMEN - 田辺イエロウ | Tanabe Yellow
Genre: Gen, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-12 00:49:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15328074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthAnimus/pseuds/AnimusStuff
Summary: While out looking for Takayama, Rei gets hurt. The rest of the Bird Club deal.





	Butterfly Stitch

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the Birdmen Anniversary 2018 collaboration project!

Eishi was in a huff. The others didn't really notice, since Eishi's neutral mood tended to lean towards appearing grouchy, but Mikisada had known Eishi for years, and knew when Eishi was just being Eishi, and when he was in a mood and trying to hide it. Still, huffy Eishi was a thing at the moment.

Mikisada got it. He and Eishi had a bunch of stuff in common, even though some people didn't see it. They were both impatient, especially when there was a reason to just go. And they did have a reason to go. They had to get away and get to a goal. They had to get away from Japan and from where Eden could track them, and they had to find Takayama. It made sense to hurry.

Still, go or not, they'd have to do it together. They'd come this far by sticking together and they wouldn't be splitting up or splintering over this either. And Sagisawa couldn't fly by plane. Whether it was a matter of wouldn't or couldn't didn't matter. None of them really wanted to see the state travelling like that put him in.

Eishi had acted like it wasn't a big deal, but Mikisada could notice his restlessness. It wasn't that he was mean or anything, he was actually more fun. But that fun came from wanting to not let anyone see that he was bothered. So Eishi teased and played around, and maybe doing that helped him feel better too.

Many things about Eishi made sense to Mikisada that other people didn't get. This also made sense. They all wanted to find Takayama, after all. They'd all missed him while he was gone and half the reason they were out here was to find him again. They'd gotten tired of always waiting for him, so it was time to hunt him down. But the rest of them mattered just as much, and so they'd take care of Sagisawa on the way.

That had been the plan, and they still stuck to it, even after the Blackout emerged.

They’d all been low-key expecting a Blackout to show up at some point. They always did when things got too calm or too smooth. The puppet shape had been expected too. Either that or something from Mikisada’s mental scape. This puppet had been a lot more lively than the previous one that had come for Sagisawa. It moved its limbs under its own power, the controls utilized as weapons that it flung around.

They’d been too focused on dodging the boomerang-like controls to realize that the puppet was hooking up its strings in the narrow valley they’d been flying through. The strings that were almost impossible to spot and, when tightened, sharp like knives.

One of those tight-strung strings had slashed the upper half of Mikisada’s wing off. Irene was currently pressing the writhing piece against Mikisada’s side, trying to get the piece to remember it was a part of a whole.

“It would grow back, though,” Mikisada commented when the tendrils of wing mass almost smacked Irene in the face. “You could just leave it.”

“I don’t like the thought of animals eating the stuff our wings are made of,” Tsubame said with concern. “It could be bad for us or them.” She resolutely didn’t look down at Sagisawa resting against her, bleeding profusely from the wide gash on his arm that Eishi was trying to sew shut. Her arms were clasped on his arms, keeping him from wriggling away from the pinching needle.

Sagisawa had also gotten tangled in one of the Blackout’s invisible strings. The string had wrapped around his left arm and dug deep, trying to cut the limb off. Now he seemed barely there, eyes staring into the distance while the blood from his arm soaked him. Against the darkness of the wing mass, the slick blood looked like ink.

On the upside, the Blackout had gone done quickly after that happened, the rest of their group flocking together to attack it mercilessly until it stopped moving.

Eishi was the one in charge of putting Sagisawa back together, retrieving a needle and thread from the emergency kit he’d bundled up into his wing mass. Eishi was always prepared, although Mikisada wondered what had made Eishi think they’d need that level of first aid, or if the items had been intended for their clothing. Probably both.

A pained hiss interrupted all their attempts to not dwell on what exactly was going on. Mikisada looked at Sagisawa, squeezed between Tsubame and Eishi, face pale yet sweaty. Some of the liquid was obviously tears, if the reddened eyes were any clue. Mikisada didn’t want to look at them.

“Can we put Sagisawa’s arm back if it comes off?” Mikisada asked. Tsubame’s eyes widened as she turned to give a closer look at the arm Eishi was stitching up.

Eishi hissed like an angry cat, hands pausing in the middle of a stitch. “Shut up, Kamoda!” He took a deep breath and pushed the needle through the skin. “This arm is not coming off.”

The air was tense as the last, half-hearted attempt to keep up a distracting conversation whittled away. With the distraction gone, Tsubame’s face looked off-color as she watched Eishi sew up Sagisawa’s skin, almost like in a horrified trance.

Whenever Tsubame was upset, she was very clearly so. Right on time, Mikisada felt the formerly-detached piece of his wing mass stop trying to fall back off.

“Thanks, Irene-chan,” Mikisada said cheerfully and promptly half-crawled, half-crouch walked over to Tsubame. “I’ll trade places with you, Tsubame-chan!”

Tsubame almost jumped to hand over Sagisawa to Mikisada, but Eishi let out a warning hiss and she settled before she could jostle the patient too much. Mikisada slid into place behind Tsubame and let the girl move away from the operation. Sagisawa wasn’t a small guy by any means, but a lot of his presence came from his personality. The half-conscious grimacing and keening held none of the usual Sagisawa and left him appearing small and faded.

Mikisada heard Irene ask Tsubame to keep watch with her and felt a moment of fondness for the newest member of their little club. Irene really knew when to step up where it counted, even for something as simple as giving Tsubame something else to do to settle her.

“I guess we’re still not all used to blood,” Mikisada mused. He looked down at Eishi’s hands and saw he was way more than halfway done with closing up the wound around Sagisawa’s arm. “You feeling queasy, Ei-chan? You need me to take over?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eishi snapped, though the wrinkle between his brows lessened as he glanced up briefly.. “I’ve seen you in worse shape than this.”

Mikisada looked down and saw that Sagisawa’s eyes were no longer staring off into the distance, but at the stitching going on. Mikisada checked that Eishi wasn’t currently pulling the needle through skin and jostled Sagisawa enough to roll his face into the crook between his neck and shoulder.

“Oh, yeah,” Mikisada said casually, wondering if Eishi was exaggerating some of his older injuries, or recalling some of his more recent ones. “But I can take it.” And walk it off, thanks to his special ability. He briefly remembered Takayama taking some his injury away before that, and wondered how you got an ability like that. It would have been useful now. Looking at Eishi’s finally calm face, Mikisada didn’t mention the thought. He started lowly humming while Eishi stitched away.

"Okay, that's done," Eishi finally declared, pulling away from Sagisawa. "I'll go wash this off. I'll bring water back for Sagisawa too." With that, Eishi wandered off.

Mikisada patted the shoulder his arm was supporting. "Hear that, Sagisawa? Soon you'll be nice and clean."

Sagisawa tried to sit up, only managing to get far enough to lean his side against Mikisada's, and sighed deeply. "Still smelling like iron, though," he said breathily. "Oh, how I long for the simple comfort of soap."

"You'll survive," Mikisada said, trying to put as much Eishi into the words as he could, even trying to put that deadpan look on his face. Sagisawa took one look at him and managed a brief chuckle to reward his efforts.

After that Sagisawa was strangely still and quiet, especially since the tense situation was over. He was always making faces and moving in small ways, so it was weird. Finally, Sagisawa broke the stillness: "I'm such a burden." He was leaning towards a joking tone, but was doubtlessly too tired to manage it. His eyes were meeting Mikisada's without hesitation but, then again, Sagisawa had always had a good poker face.

Mikisada frowned. "You're not heavy."

Sagisawa laughed, much more genuinely. "Thank you!" He slumped forward a bit and Mikisada moved his arms back to support him. "But I meant more like in flying and fighting. I'm always slowing the rest of you down."

Mikisada thought about it. "We don't all have to do the same things," he said. "Tsubame-chan and Irene-chan are all the backup I need in a tussle." He squeezed Sagisawa's uninjured arm. "You can be Eishi's backup in the planning and thinking department. He likes having you around." Of course, Eishi never said such a thing, but Mikisada did know him quite well.

"I'm glad to hear that." Sagisawa practically slurred the words out and Mikisada pulled him close.

"Come on, rest up," he urged.

"I'll rest when I feel clean again," Sagisawa argued, though not with much force. He then hummed thoughtfully. "You really love Karasuma."

While Mikisada wasn't as good at reading his other teammates as he was at reading Eishi, Mikisada did have a lot of impressions, like how Tsubame dealt the worst with the idea of loss and leaving things and people behind. He had noticed that Sagisawa said a lot less than he meant. While Eishi would ramble on endlessly in order to put words to every thought in his head, Sagisawa said things that had other meanings, hiding thoughts and feelings into words and sentences. So what did this comment mean?

Oh. Right.

"You too," Mikisada said and Sagisawa's body jolted slightly against his. He grinned. "I love all of you, Tsubame-chan and Irene-chan too." He thought about those names, affectionate syllables matching each other, and wondered if that could also carry a meaning. He tried it out, speaking slowly: "Rei-chan."

Mikisada blanched, like the word tasted bad, and Sagisawa laughed against his shoulder.

"That was awful," Mikisada decided.

"Oh, yes," Sagisawa agreed. "Say it again."

"Never," Mikisada decided then and there. Sagisawa only laughed some more while they waited for Eishi to return. Soon enough, though, Rei quieted down and fell asleep, dozing against Mikisada's side. It was about time.

They'd all be fine, Mikisada thought with certainty. They were all different, but that was just so that they could support each other through hard times.


End file.
